Helena Lamford
Helena Lamford (ランフォールド·ヘレナ, Ranfōrudo Herena) is a female Mage belonging to a Dark Guild named Faux Babylon. Being one of the founding members of said Guild, Helena is considered to be a of S-Class-level, although as a Dark Guild, official S-Class positions are absent. She is a part of the team Les Atouts Maudits; the very backbone of Faux Babylon. Seeing as she is prominent members of Faux Babylon, she has rather significant connections to the rest of the team. Regarded as Flynn Egozu's best and perhaps only friend, the two frequently accompany each other and find solace in their shared sanity. Morose and melancholic still, she is seldom observed outside her room, as she spends the majority of her time being tended to by her personal attendants Conchita Wawa and Luiz Saldo. Whenever she gets up, she usually reads new books brought to her by the attendants, eats steaks and intoxicates herself by drinking excessive amounts of wine to make time pass. Therefore, Helena is seldom quite lucid, despite being considered sane. She seldom breaks her habit of sloth and appears to only do so when ordered by Maricia. Even then, it is not guaranteed that she will be sober. Usually serving as a comic relief with her snarky behavior and otherwise gruff attitude, enemies and allies alike have a tendency to forget that with the Magic Maricia bestowed on her, Keratin Body, Helena is a force to be reckoned with. Appearance Personality Generally speaking, Helena can best be described as rather grumpy and seldom expresses any form of joy. She spends the majority of her days doing little constructive and mostly sleeps, as if tired of this world. If disturbed by anyone else than members of Les Atouts Maudits or her attendants, she has a tendency to lash out violently with a tranquil annoyance and has a tendency to mutter "How annoying" (うるさいです, Urusaidesu) in these situations. Despite being violent when she receives unwelcome guests, Helena seldom raises her voice and maintains a monotone, disinterested tone constantly. Due to the fact that she values manners, she tends to treat her servants with surprising respect and often tosses in "Please" and "Thank you" whenever they perform various tasks requested by her. However, this is more a result of her sluggishness than anything else. Seldom rushing her servants to do anything, quite a few people have grown impatient with her, including her best friend Flynn Egozu. This applies more in situations where her urgent assistance is required. Even in such situations, she has a nasty tendency to dismiss pleas and complaints with sentences such "Yeah, yeah" and "Doing it as fast as I can". Whether the latter is true or not remains unknown, but due to her lethargic state, it likely is. While few see why she has resorted to this kind of self-imposed morosity, but it is likely out of sheer despair. Out of all the members belonging to the expedition, it is known that Helena had the strongest personal ties with the outside world and therefore also had the most to lose. She became desparate after the lot of them were trapped inside and attempted to leave the establishment on multiple occasions and even went as far as attempting to take Maricia's life, to no avail naturally. Eventually she grew to accept that she was not likely to ever escape this imprisonment and instead started to obey the every command of her demonic mistress. Still maintaining her sorrow, however, she drowns it in various intoxicating pursuits. As mentioned, her habit of ingesting alcohol to the point of inebriation is by far the most consistent. Due to the fact that she is even more miserable when sober than when she is inebriated, Helena can actually be fairly good company when she starts getting drunk. However, as she deteriorates down the spiral of intoxication, she has a tendency to become slightly more sarcastic; befitting of the thorny aspect of the rose she embodies. In fact, she becomes even worse when she wakes up in the morning with a hangover. However, even this beats the uncontrollable sobbing prevalent in her sober state. She even bears knowledge of how stressful this is to others and as such, has tasked her attendants with maintaining a constant flow of alcohol to keep her at least tipsy. Thanks to her Magic, she does not have to worry about ruining her liver either, as it regenerates. Despite being regarded as grumpy by others, Helena is by far the most compassionate of the members, since she has not detached herself from humanity, unlike the other members. She seldom displays it, due to the fact that she spends the majority of her time in Withered Eden and few of the members deserve sympathy, according to her. However, she has a tendency to express disgust and regret when she learns of the atrocities committed in the name of her guild and by guildmates. Due to this, she seldom interacts with her guildmates at all, since the majority are both gruesome and selfish. In fact, the only reason why she is classified as evil by others is because of her forced affiliation with Maricia and therefore, she claims to be "villain in name only" and "evil by association". Truthfully, the manner which she treats her allies and to an extent, her master, reflects this. A quick quip with her tongue often serves as an effective finisher in idle conversations with both enemies and sworn allies alike. The general consensus on her wit is that it is amusing, though there are certain members of the Babylonian court which resent being to dish out comebacks at her. Those who are foolish enough to do, more often than not, end up in an all out insult war. Whenever her idle squabble causes conversations to derail, her superiors have a tendency to chastise her for her pettiness - effectively silencing her. Although she is renowned for being physically attractive and dressing inappropriately more often than not, Helena has made it clear that she resents being objectified by others through remarks and treatment. When this occurs, she does not shy away from punishing the perpetrators with physical force. While her servants consider this disproportionate retribution, she does not share their opinion and implies that she herself was punished with force to learn when growing up. Yet her remarks seem to insinuate that she considers this to be normal practice and believes it is still common to treat children harshly to make them learn. As such, she often implores Flynn Egozu to brutalize Hansel to make the "shitty brat learn some manners". While he refuses her suggestions on a frequent basis, she does not cease pestering him. Helena's reluctance towards disciplining children might also stem from her upbringing as well, but none have confronted her with this yet. However, this does not, humorously, not apply to adults. History Synopsis Powers & Abilities Keratin Body (ケラチンボディ, Kerachin Bodi): The Lost Magic Helena possesses. It allows her to freely manipulate the cellular structure of her hair, nails, skin and flesh. Basically everything that contains keratin in her body. She can strengthen the material, weaken it, extend it, harden it and even regenerate it in mere moments. This is a major advantage when it comes to fighting hand-to-hand combatants, as she can easily outlast them by healing her wounds and create baleful weapons from her nails. However, this Magic is incapable of affecting anyone else than herself and overuse would result in a weakened cellular structure. It should be noted that this particular Lost Magic requires a keratin-rich diet in order to be executed properly by the Caster. *'Crow Finger' (クローフィンガー, Kurō Fingā): By manipulating the density and the length of the keratin in her fingernails, Helena can transform all her fingertips into into sharp spears of vast length. The durability of her nails is also enhanced, as they can with ease block and trade blows from swords and other melee weapons. They are, surprisingly enough, resistant to Fire-magic too. **'Raven Tree: Graveyard' (レイヴントリー：グレイブヤード Reibun Torī: Gureibuyādo): By stabbing the ground while her Crow Finger-spell is active, Helena is able to create long, sharp structures of the same material as her nails. They protrude from the ground and grow towards the sky. While they only grow upwards and are fairly easy to avoid, these "trees" grow branches in order to impale moving targets. The spawning speed and the sharpness of the branches overwhelm the enemy and traps them in a lethal bush of spiky trees. *'Mane of The Succubus' (メインオブザサキュバス, Mein Obu Za Sakyubasu): The same principles apply to this technique, although instead of using it on her nails, it is used on Helena's hair. This spell enables her to use her hair as some sort of weapon, similar to Hair Magic, but to a greater extent. Her hair can grow indefinitely, be used to trap enemies, suffocate, stab and even enter the body of a victim. However, unlike her Crow Finger-spell, which makes her nails resistant to fire, Mane of the Succubus doesn't remove the hair's natural weakness to fire. *'Return to Quintessence' (リターンとクインテセンス, Ritān to Kuintesensu): Helena forces her Magic Power to every nook and cranny of her body, restoring damaged skin, flesh, nails and hair. This process is rapid, but frequent usage of this spell takes a huge toll on the user's body and depletes a large amount of Magic Power. It should also be noted that this spell is incapable of regenerating damage done to internal organs. *'Picturesque Masquerade' (ピクチャレスクマスカレード, Pikucharesuku Masukarēdo): A covert spell which enables Helena to alter her appearance. This spell can allow her to change everything from hair-length to skin pigment, allowing her to take on the appearance of other people. Tough, it is vastly inferior to Transformation Magic, with the sole exception of being more enduring. In fact, the change can be permanent if the Caster of the spell feels connected to their new appearance. *'Rose Peau' (ロズポー, Rozu Pō, French for Rose Skin): By hardening the keratin molecules in her skin, Helena can create an almost impenetrable barrier of condensed protein. While this spell is active, the areas affected will change color into something closer to yellowish brown. Due to her own vanity she detests using this technique, claiming that it ruins her beautiful appearance. The spell is capable of covering her entire body, but the larger the area it covers, the weaker the armor is. **'Rose Peau: L'enchante' (ロズポー：ランチャント, Rozu Pō: Ranchanto, French for Rose Skin: Enchant Her): Helena alters the molecular structure of her skin under the effect of the Rose Peau-spell and forces select areas of her skin to grow thorns. Only the areas under the effect of Rose Peau are able to be subjected to this sub-spell. Sleep Magic (眠りの魔法, Nemuri no Mahō): Helena has shown that she, ironically, possesses a Holder Magic variation of Sleep Magic. Feeding an unsuspecting target a green apple infused with Magic, she can make them fall asleep in mere minutes. This Magic is Helena's most iconic and the one that spurred her epithet, not the other way around. While she may seem more similar to the Witch in the said story, a rumor claims that Helena often eats some of her own apples and sleeps for hours. Enhanced Durability: Despite her average physique and slender figure, Helena is surprisingly resistant to pain. She has demonstrated that she is able to take a beating from someone of a greater power than herself: she took severe damage when she dueled Flynn Egozu, yet managed to carry on and stalemate him. Though, her healing spell gave her an advantage in this fight. Keen Intellect: Helena is renowned to be the mastermind behind the strategical plans of Faux Babylon. She is devious and manipulative, with a creative yet realistic mind. In fact, it was thanks to her that they discovered the secret of Withered Eden. An avid reader, she has a collection of Gothic literature and it is in fact she who renovated the ruined castle. She is manipulative and often toys with the emotions and relationships of her targets. It is often her wit that saves her teammates when engaging in dangerous activity. Relationships Flynn Egozu Although Flynn and Helena were professional partners prior to the discovery of Withered Eden, their current relationship is far more amicable. The two of them were the only members of the expedition that bore extensive knowledge about each prior to setting out and therefore trusted each other mutually. This relation of trust carried on when they were forced into the service of Maricia and gradually grew to encompass their deepest, most shameful aspects. Helena is aware of Flynn's ulterior motive of locating the Withered Eden and in turn, Flynn knows of Helena's, which still remains unknown to just about everyone else. Although they still demonstrate signs of trust and friendship, the circumstances around them has caused some strain in their bonds. Helena, having resorted to alcohol to drown her emotions, rarely moves outside of her room and rarely interacts with the other members. However, she is still visited, at least biweekly, by Flynn and the two of them often discuss some of the books Helena has read. While it can be said that he pities Helena for her careless attitude and slothful behavior, Helena sympathizes even more with Flynn due to his obsessive attitude when it comes to resurrecting his family. Trivia *Her attack Crow Finger contains Katakana which can be read as both "Crow Finger" and "Claw Finger", thus creating a bilingual play on words. *Her regular theme is Strange Names by Yuki Kajiura, while her combat theme is Rōgoku (prison-STRIP) by ''-45''. Behind the Scenes Category:SereneDreams Category:Female Category:Dark Mage Category:Caster-Mage Category:Faux Babylon Category:Characters Category:Lost Magic User Category:Holder-Mage